Another couple of weeks have rolled by, and another set of questions has been answered by the Blizzard developer team. Last time it was all about tanks, but this week DPS specs and characters can rejoice, because they are in the spotlight. Some of the more interesting questions cover things like DPS warriors and Frost Death Knights building up threat too quickly and whether this will be addressed in the future; ingame damage meter similar to Recount and Skada; positional requirements for some abilities, and whether they are a mechanic that has no place in the Cataclysm raiding environment. Read the full post for even more interesting questions!

The new "assist" pet stance added in 4.2 would work very well with fire totems - is there any reason why totems were specifically excluded from that functionality? – Korghal (NA/ANZ)

We’d love to have Searing Totem use the new assist stance, but we felt it was too risky to just flip that switch without a great deal of testing. True pets have a control bar so it’s possible to override their behavior if the default behavior is something you don’t want. That’s

Similarly to the Call of the Crusade patch during the last expansion, 4.2 introduces a big and unique ingame event, full of quests, dailies, achievements, and rewards. And while many players remember the Argent Tournament with dread because of its numerous dailies and boring jousting, the Regrowth and Molten Front experience bear only a small bit of resemblance with the Icecrown event.

Most notably, the Firelands invasion achievements are greater in number and better in quality than the Tournament ones, the rewards are more useful and fun, and the dailies are more versatile. This is Wowhead's guide to them, for those who like to get their achievements done quickly and painlessly when patches hit!

Achievements

This is the very first stage of the dailies and it takes place strictly in the Regrowth. You need to be eligible to start the dailies' prerequisites (i.e. to have completed Aessina's Miracle), and you need to do the short pre-req chain terminating with this quest.

In Ask the Devs #9, Blizzard covers the topic of tanking. The topics addressed a number of practical concerns and provided insights into how Blizzard perceives the strengths and weaknesses for each tank. Topics included: the role of mastery for each tank, aggro-generating abilities for warriors and druids, the decreasing amount of tanks required in a raid, the OP nature of protection paladins, the possibility of new tank classes--and most importantly, when tanking classes will get a legendary weapon.

And here comes the latest Ask the Devs rubric we'll see for a long time. The Firelands. If you have submitted any questions regarding the new bosses, T12, the daily quest hubs in Hyjal and the Firelands, or just about lore, here's your chance to see them (or ones like them) answered. Some of the more interesting questions inquire after that Abyssal Maw dungeon Blizzard promised us a while back (we are not getting it), raid balance and boss mechanics in the Firelands, and even a little bit of lore to make those of us into that kind of thing very happy.

Ask the Devs #9 was just announced, and its topic will be Tanking. The official thread for it will come a little later today, so get your questions ready!

What happened with the Abyssal Maw dungeon that was supposed to come with Firelands? – Maryjanee (EU-EN), Espiritu (NA)

There isn't much I can say about this - the title is self-explanatory. Our lovely Blizzard is no longer a teenager company, and is only one year away from legal age (in the US). I am not sure what the implications of that are, nor am I sure whether all of them can be considered legal, but the facts are here. And, as it's starting to become common, Blizz did a mini-site for the anniversary - you check it out along with the big announcement below:

In 1991, three guys fresh out of UCLA decided to start their own game company. Their goal: make cool games and have fun doing so. Twenty years later, the company has become a world-renowned game developer and publisher, with offices across the globe and millions of players enjoying its games in more than a dozen languages.

In 2011, Blizzard Entertainment marks its 20th anniversary. Over the course of the year, we'll be celebrating two decades worth of games along with you, the community of players who made it all possible through your passion, enthusiasm, and support. Join us for a stroll down memory lane on this anniversary site

The Cataclysm draws near, but Blizzard still has a few zone previews to entertain us with. Tol Barad joins the rest, as the European WoW site narrates the story of of the Battleground-like world PvP zone and daily quests hub.

Read the preview snippet below and follow the link to the real deal!

Blizzard Entertainment

An island off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, Tol Barad is a historic land now sought-after by the leaders of the Horde and the Alliance. Its strategic, isolated location makes it an ideal stronghold from which to conduct military strikes. In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, a battle will be waged to seize control of this prized territory. Should you triumph, unique rewards await you. Read more about this all-new world PvP and questing zone here.